What it costs to buy a landscaping business in Australia

Landscaping and lawn mowing businesses in Australia list from about $9,999 for a bare Jim's Mowing territory to $1.75 million for a commercial landscape construction and maintenance operation. Owner-run mowing and garden rounds sell for $50,000 to $200,000, and once signed commercial or strata contracts and a crew sit behind the number, prices run past $900,000.

SEEK Business alone lists over 70 landscaping and gardening businesses for sale on any given day, from a $50,000 residential mowing round on the Gold Coast to a $1.75 million landscape construction and maintenance firm on the Central Coast. The spread is wider than most trades categories because the industry is really two businesses wearing one ANZSIC code. One is a person with a ute, a trailer and a set of mowers selling a client list worth roughly a year of their own wage. The other is a company with a crew, a factory unit full of plant and signed commercial or strata contracts, priced as a multiple of earnings. The listing tells you which one you are looking at only if you read past the asking price to the turnover.

What landscaping and lawn mowing businesses sell for

A cross-section of live and recently sold Australian listings, cheapest to dearest, surveyed 26 September 2026. Where the seller published turnover, profit, staff or vehicles we show it; a large share of mowing rounds do not.

Read the ratios and the same split shows up as in cleaning and trades: the Melbourne Landscape and Projects listing is $195,000 on $403,771 of turnover and about $94,000 of EBITDA, roughly 2.1 times EBITDA, and its plant is only $25,000 of the price, the rest is the client base and systems. The Gosford business is $1,750,000 on $706,000 of net profit, 2.5 times, with a $2.63 million turnover backing it. The Melbourne premium listing is $1,478,889 turnover for a price the broker will only quote on application, which itself tells you the seller expects a bidding process rather than a fixed multiple. The two Gold Coast rounds at $50,000 and $79,000 carry no turnover figure at all, which is normal for a one-person round where the number is really the owner's own wage.

How the price is built: multiples, contracts and the crew

Miro Capital's landscaping valuation guide, published 1 May 2026, puts Australian landscaping businesses at 2 to 4.5 times EBITDA, well below the 3 to 8 times it quotes for the average Australian business, and it is explicit that the gap between a sole-operator mowing round and a commercial maintenance operation is enormous. A general Australian valuation guide from businessforsale.com.au puts the wider small business market at 1.5 to 3 times seller's discretionary earnings (SDE, the tax-return profit with the owner's wage, super and personal expenses added back), which lines up with the Melbourne Landscape and Projects listing: $94,000 EBITDA at just over 2 times is $195,000, almost exactly the asking price once the $25,000 of tools and restoration gear is set aside as plant rather than goodwill.

What pushes a listing from the low end of that range to the high end is the same thing that moves cleaning and trades businesses: signed, transferable contracts versus a phone list of residential clients who follow the operator. The Gosford business, at $1.75 million on $706,000 of net profit, is described as landscaping construction and maintenance with recurring revenue, the kind of repeat commercial and strata work a new owner can step into without re-selling the client base. The Sydney listing priced at $1.5 million plus is explicit that it runs under management with an operations manager and senior team leaders, so the buyer is purchasing a business that survives an owner change, not a relationship with one tradesperson. Compare that with the $50,000 and $79,000 Gold Coast and Perth rounds, both advertised on "loyal repeat clients" rather than signed agreements, priced close to a single year of an owner-operator's earnings.

Landscape construction firms sit apart from maintenance rounds because so much of the price is physical plant. The Sydney Southwest listing includes $700,000 of equipment and a 140 sqm factory unit inside its $1.5 million asking price, which means well under half the price is goodwill. Ask for an itemised plant list, valued separately, on any construction-heavy listing; a buyer financing the deal needs to know what a lender will actually secure against.

Franchise territories: Jim's Mowing and VIP Home Services

The cheapest way into the industry is a franchise territory, and the fee structure explains the low entry price. Jim's Group prices a bare territory from $9,999 in some regions, a territory that already comes with customers from $19,999, and most packages, including a trailer, mowing equipment and training, land in the $25,000 to $35,000 band. Ongoing costs are a flat monthly fee of about $600 to $900, not a percentage royalty, plus roughly $16 to $19 per lead. Jim's own material points to a $2,500 a week income guarantee and 30 to 40 leads in the first few months while the round fills, with strong operators netting $80,000 to $110,000 or more once established.

V.I.P. Home Services runs a comparable model in lawns and gardens, with franchises listed from about $30,000 plus GST for an owned territory. As with Jim's, the franchisor keeps a claim on how the business can be sold on, and a franchise resale still needs the franchisor's approval, which the franchise costs guide covers in more detail. For a full breakdown of what it costs to build a lawn mowing round from nothing rather than buy a franchise or an existing business, see the lawn mowing startup cost guide.

What the ATO benchmarks say the margins should be

The ATO publishes separate small business benchmarks for lawn mowing and garden services and for landscape construction, both drawn from 2023-24 tax returns and updated through 2026. For lawn mowing and garden services, total expenses run 41% to 58% of turnover for businesses between $50,000 and $175,000, and 58% to 74% of turnover above $175,000, with labour at 20% to 36% of turnover and motor vehicle costs at 5% to 14%, higher for smaller operators doing more of their own driving. Landscape construction, being plant and materials heavy rather than just labour, typically carries a higher cost-to-turnover ratio again once soil, pavers, turf and hired machinery are counted as cost of sales rather than overhead.

Run the Melbourne Landscape and Projects numbers through that benchmark and they hold up: $403,771 turnover less an EBITDA of about $94,000 implies roughly 77% of turnover in costs, consistent with the ATO's higher band for an operation over $175,000 with a subcontractor network doing the work rather than one owner. A listing claiming a much thinner cost base than that on a similar turnover is one to ask harder questions about, particularly around whether subcontractors are paid on ABN or whether some of the crew should be on payroll.

Vehicles are the other line worth checking against the benchmark. At 5% to 14% of turnover, a $400,000 mowing and maintenance business should be running $20,000 to $56,000 a year in vehicle costs; a buyer needs the fleet list, what is owned outright and what is still on finance, because that finance either transfers at settlement or gets refinanced into the new loan.

Financing a landscaping business purchase

Lenders split a landscaping business the same way the market prices it: plant on one side, goodwill on the other. Utes, trailers, zero-turn mowers, whipper snippers and construction machinery are resaleable, so they are written on a chattel mortgage or equipment finance up to a valuer's figure, and the vehicle itself can go on ABN vehicle finance separately from the business loan. Goodwill cannot be repossessed, so lenders want two years of BAS that match the listing, and for anything with commercial or strata contracts, the contract register with term, notice period and an assignment clause showing the work transfers to the new owner. Read the trades business purchase guide for how lenders treat order books and contracts across the wider trades category, since the same logic applies here.

A commercial maintenance or construction business at $900,000 and up is usually funded with a buyer deposit of 30% to 50%, a secured business loan against the buyer's property at rates typically between 7% and 9% p.a. (broker market data, July 2026; RBA cash rate held at 4.35% on 12 August 2026), the fleet and plant on chattel mortgage, and on larger deals vendor finance or an earn-out tied to contract retention. Buyers without property fall back on non-bank unsecured facilities from about 12% up to 25% p.a. A sub-$50,000 residential round or a fresh franchise territory is treated as a startup rather than an acquisition; see the new-ABN business loan guide and the tradie equipment and vehicle finance guide for how the ute and mowers get funded on day one.

Approval is subject to lender assessment. To get a number from Ventas, send the listing, two years of financials and BAS, the plant and vehicle list with anything still on finance, the contract register if there is one, and whether you have property to secure the loan against. Start at business acquisition finance.

This is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Figures are indicative market data from the sources listed, not Ventas offers, and move with the market. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a professional. All finance is subject to lender assessment and approval.

This article is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Ventas Asset Lending is a finance broker, not a lender. Approvals are subject to lender assessment. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a qualified professional, including your accountant for any tax questions.